Christy the elephant and unnamed calf die nearly simultaneously

Bad news visited the Shedd Aquarium and Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday as the two institutions announced the death of important animals in their collections.

A male baby beluga whale, born in a difficult birth Sunday at the Shedd, died at 10:44 a.m. after it began showing signs of swimming erratically and having difficulty breathing.

Almost simultaneously at Brookfield Zoo, officials euthanized Christy, a 28-year-old female African elephant, just days after she began showing signs of serious renal failure, a rare condition in elephants.

Christy had been diagnosed in 2007 with an enlarged ureter, "the first case of that condition ever seen in an elephant that we know of," said Mike Adkesson, an associate veterinarian at Brookfield.

"I had been following that condition closely. But she showed no clinical problems with it after that until the past few days, when we saw a downturn in her physical condition," Adkesson said. "She became increasingly lethargic, and we began to see signs of fluid accumulation and signs of complete renal failure. She went into a really rapid decline in the past few days."

The zoo brought in outside elephant and large-mammal specialists over the weekend, he said, and they all agreed that Christy's condition was irreversible, leading to the decision Tuesday morning to euthanize her.

Animal autopsy findings showed Christy, who came to the zoo as a 2 1/2 -year old in 1984, had an abnormally small right kidney, roughly a tenth the size of a normal one, as well as the enlarged ureter, conditions consistent with congenital defects, Adkesson said.

"It is remarkable she lived as long a life as she had, considering," he said. "We feel lucky she was here with us as long as she was."

In May, Christy was left alone when her longtime companion, Affie, a 40-year-old female African elephant, died.

In August, the zoo found a new companion for her, bringing in another female, 26-year-old Joyce, from California.

"Joyce is definitely aware something has changed," said Carol Sadaro, the zoo's associate mammal curator. "Now we will try to find her companionship as soon as possible because elephants are extremely social animals that don't like to be alone."

At the Shedd, the whale calf had been separated from its mother early Tuesday and placed for observation and treatment in the Oceanarium medical pool after it began swimming erratically and showing signs of having difficulty breathing.

"This morning, we became more concerned since he continued to be disoriented in his swimming and still had not reached two critical milestones of bonding with mom and nursing," said Ken Ramirez, senior vice president of animal collections.

A veterinary team gave the calf oxygen and medication, but its condition never improved.

Preliminary findings from an animal autopsy after he died revealed no conclusive cause of death, Shedd veterinarian Caryn Poll said.

The mother, Naya, shows no sign of ill health but remains under observation. She had a difficult 21-hour labor when she delivered a stillborn calf in 2002.

On Sunday, after Naya was in labor for five hours, her rate of contractions began to slow down. At that time, the veterinary staff "assisted" in helping her to push the baby, who emerged healthy and began breathing as soon as it reached the surface of the pool.